The Mysterious Governess (Daughters of Sin Book 3) (18 page)

Fortunately, Edgar had tragically drowned in an accident involving Lady Julia Ledger, but it was sobering to recall how close Araminta had come to ruining her life. Especially now that she had such glittering opportunities at her fingertips. The thought of Lord Ludbridge made her heart swell. How clear he’d made his disappointment when she’d told him she’d have to leave London for a while.

Her father’s summons left her feeling cheated, and she was struck by the urge to take her anger out on someone. She had half a mind to let Lady Julia’s husband, Sir Archie Ledger, in on a few secrets about the wickedness his young wife had got up to when the pair of them had attended the fateful weekend house party at The Grange all those months before, which had resulted in Edgar’s death. However, she’d given away the idea after failing to come up with how such a revelation would directly benefit herself.

Recently she’d heard that the “lovely Lady Julia” had been delivered of a girl.

Everyone, she thought, was having babies or eloping. Her last sight of Larissa had been of her half-sister staring moon-eyed at Mr. Tunley. Well, now it was Araminta’s turn.

If anyone deserved a good match, it was Araminta.

“Mother!” she cried as Mary, the housemaid, opened the door of her mother’s bedchamber. For the moment she truly was overjoyed to see her darling, lovely mother lying against the plumped-up pillows, smiling at her over the downy head of a light-haired infant. “I’ve missed you!” In that moment, she realized she really had.

She took a seat at her mother’s side and reached over to kiss her on the forehead. “So this is my new sister.”

“Would you like to hold her?”

Araminta shook her head. “Perhaps later. She smells a little, and she has a very screwed-up little face, doesn’t she? Like...she’s just tasted vinegar.”

“She looks very much like you as an infant.” Her mother smiled down at the sleeping baby, wrapped in a small white woolen blanket. “She will improve. Hetty, on the other hand, was a complete cherub. The prettiest baby I ever saw.”

Araminta bristled. “Obviously infancy is no gauge of how a child will blossom.”

“Now, let’s not be snide. Hetty looked radiant the last time I laid eyes on her. And even if she has scandalized your papa by eloping with a man with a reputation, I could not be happier for her.” Lady Partington put her hand out to Araminta, who took it reluctantly. “Please don’t be cross with your sister.”

“How could I not? She ruined my chances of a good match this season. It was mortifying attending Lady Smythe’s ball, when barely anyone asked me to stand up. They were all whispering behind their hands about the scandalous Miss Henrietta Partington, who eloped with a man rumored to have been involved in a plot to bring down the government. I could wring that girl’s neck.”

“Araminta, please. What’s done is done, and Hetty is happy at last. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for her.” Her mother squeezed her hand before removing it to tuck the blankets more securely around the child as it stirred. “And very soon, I predict, you will make a match that will please you as much as it will us. With your beauty and your ambitions, not to mention your dowry, I have no doubt it will be a glittering one, too.”

Araminta let her mother’s words wash over her as she stared out of the window. At least her mother still had faith in Araminta’s abilities, even if she was talking Hetty up undeservedly.

“Your papa and I received a letter from your sister last week, in which she voiced concern over your interest in Lord Debenham. She warned us to be vigilant, as she said he was not a gentleman you should associate with, no matter what the inducement, and that she had this on good authority from her new husband. Well, your father decided then and there that you must come home so that he could talk to you.”

Araminta straightened. “I do not think Henrietta is in a position to dispense marital advice to me,” she said, crisply.

“My dear, no need to take that tone. Hetty is merely concerned for your happiness.”

“Hetty is gloating now that she has precedence over me for the first time. She’s always wanted to tell me what to do, and now that she’s married, she thinks she can!”

“But there must be truth in her concerns, surely? I know nothing about Lord Debenham but if your sister thinks you should stay away, especially if it’s on Sir Aubrey’s advice, then, of course, I must bring the matter up with you.” Her voice changed and she looked with great sympathy at her daughter. “I know you had ambitions regarding Sir Aubrey, and I know you’re cross with Hetty for marrying him, but please don’t do anything rash, Araminta.”

“How dare anyone imagine I’d do anything...rash!” Araminta had to take several deep breaths to rein in her outrage. She smoothed the folds of her jonquil travelling dress over her knees and gazed out of the window at the sweeping lawns of the gated park. There was a time when to be mistress of The Grange seemed the epitome of success. How much her ideas had changed. “Always I am mindful of the consequences of my actions...unlike Hetty!” She exhaled on a sigh. “But you can set your mind at rest on account of Lord Debenham. It’s true that for a very short while I considered him a likely prospect, since he’d made his interest for me so very clear. However, there is another young man I met at Lady Smythe’s ball several weeks ago who is clearly taken with me, Mama, and I do like him tremendously.”

She smiled as she recalled the way Lord Ludbridge had looked into her eyes as he’d raised her gloved hand to kiss her fingertips the first night when they’d said goodnight. He’d been smitten from the very first glance, he’d told her more than once, since then.

And then Araminta had been dragged back to the country. Lord Ludbridge’s note and the bouquet of flowers he’d sent her on the morning of her departure had reassured her of his desire to see her the moment she returned, so perhaps leaving the city so soon after Hetty’s scandal was not such a terrible thing. It might make him more inclined to make her an offer, sooner.

“Who is this young man?” Her mother looked indulgently at her, clearly pleased at such news.

“Lord Ludbridge. Have you heard of him?”

“Only good things.” Her mother’s smile broadened. “That he is a fine-natured fellow—as are all his brothers—and he’s been working hard to restore the fortunes of the estate, after his grandfather had gambled so much away. Apparently after his late father fell ill, he left much of the handling of daily matters to his eldest son who has acquitted himself well.”

Frowning, she added, “I hear he’s not in London much and that he prefers the country. I don’t know if that would suit you, Araminta. And I believe there would be...pecuniary restraints.” She cleared her throat. “I know your ambitions extend to more—”

“I have changed greatly, Mother, and am no longer as I was before I went to London for my second season,” Araminta assured her. She wasn’t best pleased to learn that Lord Ludbridge was not as plump in the pocket as she’d supposed or hoped, but he was very handsome, charming and clearly taken with her, and Araminta was not going to end her season without an offer. If she had to marry someone with less money, then he must at least be easy to manage.

“I’m glad to hear that, Araminta. I’d hoped you would...soften a little. I want you to be happy and I believe that if you place more emphasis on what your heart is telling you, rather than pursuing only your stated ambitions, you will find the contentment that I have.”

The child was waking, whimpering, its little mouth making sucking motions, its eyes still closed. Araminta was horrified when her mother put it to her breast and, although it shut the little beast up, she felt it most undignified.

Her mother smiled when she caught Araminta’s look. “I gave both of you to a wet nurse, and your father feels I ought to do that now, but really, this is the easiest way to settle the child. I know it’s frowned upon but I’ve decided I don’t much care what others think. Oh, Stephen, Araminta has returned.”

Araminta turned as her cousin entered the room after a brief knock.

He smiled warmly as he advanced. “Cousin Araminta, the last time I saw you was at Vauxhall, which was not too long ago. But my, how things have changed since, eh?”

Araminta felt herself burn with color. He surely was not referring to the Sir Aubrey disaster, though the way he was gazing at her mother suggested he would not care. A strange and vague unease manifested itself, and she rose.

“I had not realized you’d left London, Cousin Stephen.”

“I came straight back when I heard news of young Celia’s birth.”

“Celia?”

“That’s what we’ve called her,” her mother said, and Araminta stared as Stephen occupied the chair she’d just vacated and reached across to stroke the head of the suckling child. Certainly it was not immediately apparent that’s what the child was doing, but that Cousin Stephen was in her mother’s bedchamber while her mother was feeding the child seemed quite wrong. Hesitantly she took a couple of steps toward the door. “I must dress for dinner.”

Her mother and Cousin Stephen raised their heads as if they’d forgotten her, and her mother smiled again. “I’m so delighted at your news, Araminta,” she said. “It is my greatest hope that you will discover happiness like your sister. And then you, too, will know the joys of motherhood.”

Almost immediately her mother was completely absorbed by the tiny usurper, whom she was now handing over to Cousin Stephen to hold, and Araminta was forgotten.

Angrily, Araminta opened the door into the passage and was assailed by the smell of the roast dinner that was being prepared in the kitchen basement.

Generally she loved saddle of beef, but unexpectedly she found the smell thoroughly unpleasant. In fact, she felt quite ill. She was glad to reach her bedchamber and avail herself of the damp cloth that Jane handed her, but all she could think about was the look on Cousin Stephen’s face as he’d held the child.

Entranced.

It didn’t make sense, but it was how she intended Lord Ludbridge would look at her when she’d worked her magic on him.

I
t was another ten days before Lissa was able to leave the Lamont household again. Maria was struck down with a chill, immediately followed by Cosmo.

Only when the pair had recovered their good health was talk revived about sketching Lady Baxter. After some judicious enquiries, it was established that she would indeed be attending the weekly musical soiree hosted by Lady Milton. Immediately, Lissa dispatched a note to Ralph telling her where he could find her, if he so chose.

As Lissa took a seat beside her charge and observed those arriving to take up one of dozens of little gilded seats in front of a piano, a large harp and an even larger potted fern, she recognized many of those from Lady Smythe’s, including Lord Debenham, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Crossing, who looked surprisingly harmonious.

She’d placed her reticule on the seat next to her but slyly removed it when Ralph slid into place as the harpist and piano player—twins, she could tell at a glance—began to tune up.

Surreptitiously, he clasped her hand for the briefest moment before confessing, “I thought I wouldn’t survive for the need to see you. Could you really not have found a moment to slip away? I can only think you can live far more comfortably without me than I without you.”

His words brought both pain and pleasure. “I was on call nursing Miss Maria and Master Cosmo for every moment I wasn’t teaching Nellie and Harriet. Oh, but Ralph, it was ghastly.” On the pretext of dropping something on the floor at her feet, she bent down and, when Cosmo did the same, she whispered, “I thought Cosmo couldn’t be more awful but apparently, when he’s fighting fit, he’s at his absolute
best
.”

Ralph chuckled, before remarking in a tone of surprise, “There’s my brother...with Miss
Partington
.”

Lissa turned to him with raised eyebrows. “It looks as if she’s his guest.” She felt sick saying the words.

“Now there’s a turnabout. I don’t think Teddy’s invited a young lady anywhere since Miss Bella broke his heart. You do know that I believe you far and away the prettiest of the two of you.”

“That’s a very kind thing to say, Ralph, but Miss Partington has been praised for being a beauty her whole life.” Before she could receive a response, she had to turn back at a question from Miss Maria.

Lissa had to be grateful to the young lady, at least for this outing. Miss Maria had simply informed her mother that she would be taking Lissa to a musical soiree, and as Miss Maria was infinitely more forceful than her highly strung mama, who spent most of the day on a chaise longue, there proved to be no difficulty.

If only everything could be achieved so easily, thought Lissa as she glanced across at Araminta, who was chatting animatedly with Lord Ludbridge. Lissa had never seen her sister look so beautiful. Araminta glowed, and it appeared Lord Ludbridge was entranced as he gazed back at her, despite the fact, it seemed, he was unable to get a word in.

“My brother looks as smitten as I,” Ralph murmured, adding hurriedly in an even lower voice, “with the other sister, of course. For five years he’s pined for his lost Bella, our neighbor with whom we’d grown up. For the past two I’ve told him he can’t burn a flame to her forever. A surprise that the two young ladies who’ve engaged his interest couldn’t look more different.”

“How did Miss Bella break his heart?” Lissa asked the question more to deflect him from his extravagant praise of Araminta. She was deeply dismayed at the idea of Araminta setting her cap at Ralph’s brother. How would Lissa compare as a prospect for Ralph in consequence? The truth would be revealed, and a situation could not possibly be allowed whereby two sisters—one of aristocratic stock with a handsome dowry, the other illegitimate and penniless—could marry two brothers like Ralph and Lord Ludbridge.

She swallowed down her sadness. Marrying Ralph was what she wanted more than anything, yet how could it ever be possible?

“I think I mentioned once that Miss Bella’s father leased a house near our estate. He worked for the East India Company and she and my brother were once inseparable. He was going to marry her. Then one day, Miss Bella just disappeared.”